Satveer’s eyes bounced and his head nodded as his followed Marley’s welcome. She’s a talker! Satveer couldn’t help but think that if the bouncy red headed girl was in this house, and Marley, another bouncy person was in this house… did he need bouncing up? Quickly dismissing the idea, he was strategically steering clear of over sharing and emotional turmoil.

As Marley was tailing off and semi-officially welcomed him to the house, Satveer looked to reach for a slice of pizza. Realising he was too late and the pizza had already left the table, Satveer took a mini burger from the passing house elf’s platter. “Thank you” he retorted to Marley only too aware that he was looking at the house elf. “Thank you for the food” he nodded, trying not to seem rude. Looking back at Marley he reiterated “Thank you. For your welcome. It feels lovely and I’m sure it is great.”

Whilst he could have easily eaten the burger in a single mouthful, Satveer didn’t want to appear bad-mannered so he took a bite out of it. As he chewed, Satveer took stock of his new house. He could see a mixture of 15 or 16 other people around the fire, each seemingly enjoying the welcome feast in their own way. He then turned his attention back to Marley. Her peacock-feather skirt and green the slither of green top that he could see under her robes provided a stark contrast to his own choice of black shoes, grey trousers and a fitted white shirt. At least his robes complemented his choice in casual formal wear.

“I will get some pizza when it returns. It’s one of my favourite foods!” Satveer proclaimed. “With an introduction like that, I have to try it, don’t I?”

Luckily, Satveer didn’t have such a rigid rider when it came to pizza as he did for cookies. He hadn’t yet eaten a pizza that he didn’t like. That included great-uncle Sal’s infamous Fluffy Peshwari Naan Calzones. No one other than great-uncle Sal and Bebe know what goes into them. Originally, only Sal knew the recipe. However, once it gained infamy status at the Diwali celebrations three years earlier, the family thought it best to get a second chef’s opinion. That year, Satveer’s father spent three days in a hospital with ague, and Sal was asked to change the recipe. They were served at the next year’s celebrations and although everyone liked them, they admitted they didn’t taste the same.

It was the end of summer. This was always a little tiny bit sad for Marley, because it still felt a little tiny bit weird being away from both of her parents for so much of the year. She wasn’t sad... more

Nodding confidently, a little cloud of glitter fell out of her curly afro and sprinkled across her plate. “Oh, it’ll come back soon,” Marley reassured the younger boy. “The house-elves know that... more

Having just watched Marley unknowingly eat a piece of confetti, Satveer wrestled with his self as to whether he should tell her or not. “You just” Satveer started realising he’d have to continue... more

“Oh, really?” Glancing down, Marley saw that indeed there was confetti all over her pizza. She swiped at it with her hands, brushing off some of the glittery green bits, but didn’t bother to clean it ... more

Clearly Marley wasn’t as in to muggle geek culture, or maybe she had missed the reference. Either way, Satveer’s attempt at a common interest connection was shot down. “We did drive” Satveer retorted ... more